


A Walk in the Sun

by electricshoebox



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-23
Updated: 2013-05-23
Packaged: 2017-12-12 17:24:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/814089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electricshoebox/pseuds/electricshoebox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Delilah is determined to get her brother to tell her the details of his burgeoning relationship with that elf woman, and Nathaniel finds himself thinking of their first kiss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Walk in the Sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [serenityfails](https://archiveofourown.org/users/serenityfails/gifts).



> I wrote this as a little gift for my dear friend Katie. She was looking for more Nathaniel/Velanna fic, and I offered to write one for her. She insisted I share it, so... it's a little rushed, but I hope you all enjoy it.

“So, you and the elf, hmm?”

****

Nathaniel knew that tone well enough to know Delilah was grinning wickedly at his back from her chair, chin in her hands, just as he leaned over her wash basin with their dishes. The rag in his hand paused at the edge of a plate, though he was honestly more surprised they made it all the way through this little lunch before she asked. No wonder the house was empty for the day. It was to be an interrogation.

****

“Delilah.”

****

“What?” she said, sounding exactly as she had as a child when she marched into his room with an innocent smile on her lips and a jar of beetles hidden behind her back. “I’m your sister, it’s my job to ask about these things.”

****

“More like pry into my private affairs.” The rag began circling the plate again.

****

“Six to one,” she said, and he could practically hear her smile widen. “It’s a private affair, is it?”

****

“ _Delilah_.”

****

“Come on, we’re supposed to be making up for lost time here, are we not? And I’ve gone on and on about Albert now, it’s only fair I get to know about you!”

****

“That’s different.”

****

“It is not,” she said as he reached for the next plate.

****

“It _is_.”

****

“How?”

****

Nathaniel opened and closed his mouth a few times, the rag hovering and dripping loudly into the water. Finally, he plunged the rag beneath the surface, scrubbing at the plate without answering. He heard her chair creak as she shifted.

****

“Well, I suppose I’ll just have to ask her myself, then.”

****

Nathaniel straightened and looked over his shoulder. Delilah gave him the most smug grin she had, curling her hand around her chin once more and patting his empty seat. He glared, tossing the rag into the basin. He shook his dripping hands at her, laughing when she squealed and tried to cover her head.

****

“She would set your hair one fire if you did, you know,” he remarked when his laughter finally faded, dropping into his seat.

 

“I have my big, strong brother to protect me.”

****

“Protect you?” he smirked. “I think I’d sell tickets.”

****

“You are positively cruel,” she said, punching his arm and sending him laughing again. “Come on. You’ve never been this tight-lipped about a girlfriend before.”

****

“She’s not--” he started, then stopped, his gaze drifting to the table. He dragged his finger idly along the curve of the wood grain, and Delilah leaned closer. After a moment Nathaniel looked up, furrowing his brow. “Wait, you make it sound as if I go around... ‘proclaiming my conquests’ or something.”

****

Delilah snorted. “Oh yes, your many conquests. Please. But I can usually get it out of you far easier than this. So...” she poked his arm playfully, “I can only conclude this one is special.”

****

He raised his chin as if to retort, but instead cast his eyes to the table again. A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and at last he said, “She is.”

****

“Oh, you have it _bad_ , don’t you?” Delilah said, her eyes lighting up. “All right, so, how did you get together? I imagine it was mostly your doing. She didn’t exactly seem like the most... friendly sort.”

****

Nathaniel smirked again, distantly. “That’s only partly true. About me, I mean.”

****

* * *

 

“Where are you going?”

****

Nathaniel stopped just before the Keep’s main door, grinning at the handle. He’d passed Velanna perched on a hall bench, a book spread over her knees, pointedly looking down at it when he gave her a nod and quiet greeting. As he turned back, she still wasn’t looking at him, instead examining her fingernails in the torchlight, and certainly _not_ waiting for his answer.

****

“For a walk,” he said simply.

****

This had become their ritual, days without counting, now: Velanna sitting in the hall to read just as Nathaniel happened to be heading for an evening stroll. They gave it no name, and they never spoke of it, but night after night she was there as he passed, and night after night, they strolled out side by side. They stayed up there late into the evening talking, arguing, talking again, and if she was in a particularly good mood, maybe even laughing.

****

He only ever asked her one time. Catching a glimpse of her golden hair bowed over a table in the library as he passed, he paused in the doorway.

****

“A...walk? With you? Why?” she wrinkled her nose at him over the top of her book.

****

“Fresh air, good company,” he shrugged, “I enjoy the sunset. I thought perhaps you’d like--”

****

“Good company? That’s presumptuous,” she looked back to the book, turning a page.

****

Nathaniel just smiled. “Do you never tire of stone walls after a life outdoors, my lady?”

****

“I’m perfectly capable of getting fresh air on my own,” she snapped. “And _stop_ calling me that.”

****

“As you wish, my lady.”

****

He laughed as she growled and fumbled for the cushion on the chair next to hers. He barely ducked out the door before it hit with a soft thud, laughing all the more when her cry of “Humans!” rang after him down the hall.

****

But the next night she was there, sitting in the hallway with the same book in her lap, only flicking her gaze up for a moment when he entered. She stopped him then, as she had every night since, just before he reached the door.

****

“What’s so great about the battlements, anyway?”

****

He pressed his lips together to stifle a smile and glanced over his shoulder. “It’s quite the view. I used to play on them as a child, pretend I could fly.”

****

“Fly?”

****

“I liked to imagine myself soaring above all the trees I could see, like a dragon,” he said.

****

She snorted. “Right. Well, it can’t possibly be that impressive, anyway.”

****

“You’re welcome to judge for yourself, my lady,” he gestured grandly to the door. She rolled her eyes but stood.

****

“If this view does not rival a mountain peak, I will be quite put out,” she warned, stepping in front of him to reach for the door.

****

“I’ll shoulder the blame,” he chuckled.

****

But there was no laughter in her voice tonight. She carefully closed her book and set it on the bench, as she always did, then moved to his side. She still refused to meet his eyes. They walked into the courtyard just as the sun was dipping to the horizon, splashing red light and long shadows across the Keep. A few other soldiers called greetings as the two emerged, and Nathaniel nodded to them. Velanna simply turned away. They climbed the battlements in silence.

****

They found a spot that first night, high over the towers of the Keep, where they could see the vast spread of pines beyond the walls. She had raised an eyebrow at him when they stopped, folding her arms across her chest. “So you fancied yourself a dragon, eh?”

****

“Doesn’t every child have such daydreams?” he chuckled.

****

She scoffed. “Perhaps to be a dragon-slayer, if anything.”

****

He couldn’t help a smile, because _of course_ she would. He tried to picture a skinny little elf girl running about the forest floor with a fallen twig for her slayer’s sword, leaping through the shadows to pounce on unsuspecting rabbits.

****

As he watched her now, standing at the edge of the wall and staring out at the trees while he sat down on a ledge behind her, he tried to remember when his strange curiosity about her had grown to such fascination. She was nothing like the soft, mild girls he dallied with growing up, all gentle faces and kind, practiced words, dressed in pristine silk robes with not a single hair askew. Velanna was all tight corners and jagged edges -- sharp nose, sharp ears, sharp eyes, sharp words -- with wrinkles in her robes and hair escaping from the haphazard bun she tied it in. When they spoke, and she told him of her people or of her family, or she argued with him over history or poetry or the proper way to season a pheasant, a fire blazed in her as bright as any she’d sent burning through the forest where they’d found her. And Nathaniel was drawn to it, every bit the moth hovering too close to the flame.

****

The sun was even setting her hair alight now, and he wondered how hard her lip would curl at him if he tried reciting poetry to her about it. He swallowed a laugh.

****

When she finally spoke, he had to lean close to hear her. “I do not understand you.”

****

“I beg your pardon, my lady?”

****

“ _That_!” she spun around, jabbing a finger in the air at him. “That is exactly what I’m talking about. You go out of your way to exasperate me, you tease me, you bait me, you push me, and you are so infuriatingly human--”

****

“I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do about that one.”

****

“--and by all accounts I should hate you, but then you have to go and smile like you’re doing right now, you insufferable prig, and do that laugh of yours and then--”

****

Nathaniel rose to his feet. “Velanna--”

****

“And then I can’t think straight!” she turned away again, gesturing wildly with her hands. “And I need to be focusing on my work and on the Wardens and how am I supposed to do that when--”

****

“Velanna.”

****

“--you keep looking at me like... like... like I’m pretty, or something--”

****

“You are.”

****

“See? You’re doing it again! How am I supposed to--”

****

“ _Velanna_.”

****

“What?” she snapped, whirling back around and jumping when she found him right in front of her.

****

“What are you trying to say?” he asked softly.

****

“I’m trying to say that you are the most frustrating human that I--”

****

“Yes, you covered that part already,” he said, smiling slowly.

****

“Well then I--” she started, but stopped abruptly when Nathaniel reached up to brush an errant lock of hair from her eyes.

****

She smacked his hand away, glaring, and he started back. His hand fell quickly to his side, and he opened his mouth to apologize. But before he could speak, she grabbed the back of his neck and dragged him down to her lips.

****

The kiss was harsh, with Velanna’s mouth crushed awkwardly against his, her whole body rigid with the effort. She pulled away as quickly as she’d yanked him down, releasing his neck and staring down at her feet. She flushed red from neck to ear.

****

Nathaniel stared at her for a moment, watching her wring her hands, before he gently reached for her chin. To his surprise, she allowed him to turn her face, but she kept her eyes cast away toward the trees.

****

“I think,” he said softly, stepping close enough to leave little space between them, “that I see what you’re trying to say. Something like... this?”

****

He leaned down, letting his breath ghost over her lips before brushing them with his. His hand trailed up to rest over her cheek. She shuddered at the touch, and he kept his kisses small and gentle until he felt her press closer, her lips slowly parting. When he began to nip lightly on her bottom lip, the fire of before suddenly returned to her, her fingers tangling in his hair. She grabbed a fistful of his tunic with her other hand, tugging him closer as she kissed him harder. He hummed softly in approval, which earned him a small gasp.

****

“Velanna,” he breathed, and she swept him into another kiss, a little sloppy, but sincere and eager. Her fingers curled tighter in his hair as he slid an arm around her waist, his fingers tracing circles low on her back.

****

At long last he pulled away, panting, and looked down at her. The last of the sunlight fell red-gold over her face, her lips swollen and her eyes wide and bright.

****

“You are beautiful,” he whispered, trailing his thumb along her cheek. She blushed again, ducking her head away.

****

“I... I should... go to bed,” she stammered, stepping back. He nodded, letting his arms fall away. She smoothed her robes down, taking a deep breath, but just before she could brush past him, Nathaniel caught her hand. She looked up sharply, blushing all the more when he planted a soft kiss on her knuckles.

****

“Pleasant dreams, Velanna.”

****

She stared up at him. “You... you’re doing that on purpose, aren’t you?”

****

“Whatever do you mean?” he said, grinning.

****

“Insufferable,” she muttered, but there was no heat in it. She drew her hand away and walked past him, pausing after a few moments to glance back, then hurrying back to the Keep. Nathaniel leaned back against the ledge, smiling up at the sky.

****

* * *

 

“Nathaniel? Hello? You’re not going to shrug me off by staring into space, you know.”

****

Nathaniel blinked and looked back at his sister. She craned her head expectantly. “Well?”

****

Smiling, Nathaniel shook his head, and Delilah threw her hands up. “I will get it out of you, brother, if I have to unleash a horde of beetles into the Keep to do it.”

****

“You can try,” he rose, returning to the wash basin.

****

“Don’t think I won’t.”

****

As he finished cleaning a few glasses, the water now tepid, he felt two small arms encircle his waist. Delilah pressed her chin to his shoulder.

****

“I am happy for you, Nate.”

****

Nathaniel smiled, leaning his head against hers. She kissed his cheek and then released him, but leaned around his side after a moment and said, “Even if you do have strange taste.”

****

She giggled and ducked as a wet rag sailed past her head.

 


End file.
